Archive for February, 2017

The rising cost of employee healthcare has more small employer groups choosing level funding over their traditional fully-insured health plans. What are the advantages of this option for your small business?

EthiCare performed a Medical Bill Review (“MBR”) Audit on the claim in question and uncovered $934,000 in billing and coding issues. It should be noted that EthiCare’s fee for performing the MBR Audit was only $5,000.

This article is not being written because we won’t do business with the Blues or because we see them as the only carrier with faults. However, over the years we’ve gotten tired of hearing the misconceptions and deceptions about what is being offered and how and why they are able to make some of the offers that they do.

A few minutes ago I reviewed a 440 facility claim run on a school district. This information is not the type of information a plan sponsor will ever get from a BUCA. And, you will not find many TPA’s providing this information either.

First the republicans wanted the House to influence change. They got the House and did nothing. Then they wanted the Senate to influence change. They got the Senate and did nothing. Then they wanted the Presidency to influence change. They got that too and they continue to do nothing.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has spend the better part of a year or more evaluating their employee health & welfare plan. Health care costs have placed increasing budgetary pressure on DART’s operating expenses. Management knew something had to change to continue offering benefits. There had to be a better way to offer health care benefits and tame the health trend dragon.

Clueless politicians in Austin are in dire need of good advice from others than managed care providers, insurance carriers and medical caregivers who all have vested interests in continuing the status quo. Time is running out for common sense to have a place at the table this legislative session.

He spent 20 years at Aetna, building and leading teams that sold health coverage to the largest employers in the U.S. Then transformation happened, and his heart led him to start a new type of TPA to do it better. Today – Jeff Bernhard, President of Super TPA Continental Benefits.

Whether or not a patient’s transplant is successful could boil down to hospital choice, as some hospitals have much worse outcomes than others, according to data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

Hernandez, 66, is accused of accepting cash, jewelry, and travel from people working for a school district insurance carrier and a paid independent insurance consultant for her influence on the district’s board of trustees and her vote on numerous insurance services contracts awarded to the companies with whom the co-conspirators had a financial interest.

As one observer put it, in describing our current claim process “a horse-and-buggy in a world contemplating driver-less cars, the healthcare industry’s consumer billing and payment system is an inefficient antique.”

Edinburg Independent School District, located in deep South Texas, is seeking a fee based insurance consultant to provide assessment, advice and guidance in the management of the district’s self-funded employee health & welfare program.

RiskManagers.us is a specialty company in the benefits market that, while not an insurance company, works directly with health entities, medical providers, and businesses to identify and develop cost effective benefits packages, emphasizing transparency and fairness in direct reimbursement compensation methods.

The shared vision of RiskManagers.us and clients who retain our services is to establish and maintain a comprehensive employee health and welfare plan, identify cost areas that may be improved without cost shifting to any significant degree, and ensure a superior and sustained partnership with a claim administrator responsive to members needs on a level consistent with prudent business practices.

Plan costs, in all areas including fixed expenses and claims are open for review on a continuing basis. Cost effective plan administration and equitable benefit payment to providers are paramount to fulfilling our mutual fiduciary duties. As we proactively monitor and manage an entire benefit program we are open to any suggestions members may make or the dynamic health benefit market may warrant in order to accomplish these goals.

Duty of loyalty to our clients, transparency and accountability are essential to the foundation of our services. To that end, we expect our clients to realize a substantial savings based upon the services that we will deliver.

A 400 employee life group in Texas, like many other employers across the United States, was experiencing high drug costs running into hundreds of thousands of dollars per year primarily due to specialty drugs. This self-funded plan had to do something to stop out of control prescription drug costs.

“In some cases, brokers can be paid undisclosed compensation, based on the size of their book of business with a carrier. ….. Many carriers also offer bonuses called “contingency” or “persistency” payments, where a broker is paid for keeping business in place, or providing “new placements.” According to an industry studies of benefits brokers, on average, 4-12% of a broker’s annual revenue is derived from these undisclosed payments.”

Texas school districts of 1,000 employees and more may be forced out of TRS-ActiveCare and left to find their own alternative health care plans for employees. How are these districts going to find competitive bids without detailed claim experience? Will Aetna have market advantage? Will selected Aetna insurance agents/brokers have market advantage too? Will the state release claim information to each affected district? Has marketing already begun, with agents circling the TRS ActiveCare carcass with the promise of “a safe harbor?”

Recovering losses and preventing leakage in your claims-payments pipeline are your first steps to a better bottom line. Even responsible healthcare payers lose revenue due to overpayments (upwards of 7.0 %*).

If your company was a self-funded customer of BCBSM at any time since 1994, it is very likely that you also have a hidden access fee claim……………Even small companies can have hidden fee claims worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“If you think PPO programs save you money, rethink and ask yourself, compared to what? The average national PPO pays hospitals over 250% of Medicare. It will get worse next year and the year after when annual PPO-Hospital escalator clauses go into effect. PPO’s are a contract to overpay for healthcare services!”

“Why would you invest in so much expensive real-estate for your employees? The Future office is already getting into the backyard of the new economy employees and companies. It is about results and not about presence and losing many many hours by traveling to your main office” – Unknown Author

“One consultant relayed how he had reviewed claims data and found self-insured employers are paying up to 250 percent of what Medicare pays for the same service.By direct contracting he has helped his clients get rates of 150 percent of Medicare’s price.”